Windy Day on Elizabeth River

[J. Rentch]

Fished today with Capt Wayne McMaster (Tidewater on the Fly) on the southern branches of the Elizabeth River, Norfolk, VA. We left the dock at 6:30 and headed south. The winds were around 10 until 8:30 when they started jumping from the SW. By the end of the day it was blowing over 20. Hard day of fishing. He took me to protected coves that held Specks. I was throwing a Mirrorlure 27. At first the fish were not very active. We had a low pressure with a rising tide early until 11:30, so conditions were good. A couple of boats were in the area and they weren’t doing anything.
On the third cove, I finally landed a 18” speck.
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We left that cove and found another along a recycling site along the river. I can’t believe that fish lived in this area with all the noise (vibrations) from the recycling plant, but the were holding on a flat just south. Here I landed my personal best speck- 24.5”.
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Later in the day, the Capt took me to a final cove where he has caught some nice Redfish. It was just too windy then to fish, so we headed back to the dock by 1:30.

FYI-the Elizabeth River is extremely commercialized body- tugs, large chains, barges, factories, etc. I find it hard to believe these areas held fish, but most do. Of course the further south you travel, it is less developed.

[J.A. Veil]

Congratulations on catching that big trout. That is a beauty.

[bignose]

Real nice Trout, John. A beauty!


Noise and commercial business? I used to fish Baltimore Harbor and the Middle Branch of the Patapsco from my canoe.
Scenic in an "Industrial" sort of way. lol

[dsaavedra]

Congrats on the PB, those are some gators you caught

[Mark]

Outstanding John.

Those are very nice fish.

Too bad about the high winds but that has been a pervasive issue this year.

[J. Rentch]

One of these days I hope to land a nice fish without having to deal with wind!

[bignose]

Scientific fact: Fishing cause the wind to blow.

[Mark]

Scientific fact: Fishing cause the wind to blow.

Stu,

Indeed, the science suggests that winds across the world have been increasing since 2010. I went to fount of all knowlege -- Google -- and found many articles from a variety of sources including the US National Weather Service, National Geographic and Scientific American to name just a few that cited statistics to back the claim.

Here's a quote on the subject from a website called The Maine Monitor (notably global warming advocates) from June 2021:

"Fishermen are noticing rapid changes in wind, and are often “caught in something very different than the datasets (in short-term forecasts) would suggest,” said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. “It’s harder to find a calm day” for field research, noted marine scientist Susie Arnold..."

We kayak anglers can relate to the above.

But other articles noted doldrums regionally. European weather last summer leading to a heatwave was an example cited.

However, most articles, many written in 2019, cited statistics of rising average winds speeds by as much as 17 percent since 2010. And the US National Weather Service says wind speeds were still rising across the US in a summary of 2022's weather.

Those numbers have led investors in energy producing wind turbines to do happy dances. There are lots of articles on that.

So...overall, our winds have increased in average speed accordings to stats for the past 12 years. Whether it's cyclical, caused by increasing temperatures or fishing (my choice) remains uncertain.

We have to deal with it by being juducious about when and where we fish in our kayaks. We know how. We've discussed on the site often the weather and mapping tools we can use to find the safest areas to fish in kayaks.

[Pamlico]

That's a beautiful trout. There is some great fishing around that area, but the southern branch of the Elizabeth is pretty polluted from all that industry. In the fall I don't worry about it as much because the fish have spent their summers out in the bay, but by the end of winter those fish have been foraging for months up in the river.

[J. Rentch]

Everything was C&R. I definitely would not eat anything from the river. It was amazing to find fish on flats right next to a commercial facility with unbelievable noise, dust, & vibrations, but there is.